


Domesticity

by TheStraggletag



Series: Zootopia!AU [6]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Lion!Gold, Okapi!Belle, Predator/Prey, Weirdness, Zootopia!AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-20 00:24:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14249064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStraggletag/pseuds/TheStraggletag
Summary: Domestic moments between the excentric Okapi Librarian of Storybrooke and her devoted leonine lover.





	1. Chapter 1

Her sweet darling still worried. Belle knew this, saw evidence of it in the gentle, careful way he touched her, paws barely grazing her ears. In the way he’d make sure his much heftier frame wasn’t crushing her when they lay together in post-coital bliss. He was almost comically mindful of his claws, and if he ever lost control in the heat of the moment he was always ready to sacrifice an antique or a piece of furniture rather than risk hurting her. As far as she could tell he’d had to replace his feather mattress three times since they’d started dating.

And though she found it incredibly endearing, she also knew it was completely unnecessary. She wasn’t fooled about what Rumford was. A part of her was always aware of his pointed fangs, his strong jaw, and the sheer power in his leg muscles. Everything about him had evolved to hunt and kill, the same way that everything about her had evolved to make her elusive and good at hiding, from her large ears to her camouflage. But she was no more faithful to her skittish, shy nature than he was to his predatory one, no matter how much they enjoyed the occasional predator/prey role play.

Rumford was not very fearsome, not at all. He was shy and awkward and incredibly sweet, and delightfully funny, at least to her. Lazy too, during weekends, where he enjoyed nothing better than laying under the sun, belly exposed, and doing nothing else. She’d lounge beside him with a book and gently play with his ears and, when he’d truly had and awful week and needed the extra help to relieve tension, she’d rub his belly. He’d flop on his back fully once she started, his left leg, the undamaged one, twitching every now and then, rumbling little sounds escaping his mouth every now and then.

Such a sweet little darling…


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon attempts to mark his mamma with his scent.

Gideon stubbornly rubbed his head against his mama’s neck, letting squeaky little grunts of impatience when he failed again to dislodge his papa’s predominant scent from her. The little cub was at an age where he was letting his nose explore the world, and had quickly pinpointed the fact that his mama did not smell like him, which was clearly a travesty and needed to be corrected. But no matter how many times he rubbed his budding scent glands over the soft coat of his mama’s her scent never changed.

He grunted again, clearly peeved. Rumford, reading the paper nearby, snickered.

“Poor wee lad, already trying to mark his territory.”

It was natural for lion cubs to want to smell like their mamma, but Belle not being a lioness meant she could not mark him, so Gideon was trying to mark her instead, with no success. In the end, after watching his son nearly exhaust himself rubbing his head furiously against her he reached out, nuzzling Gideon first and his wife second.

“There you go, son. Now we all smell the same.”

Gideon sniffed around, uncertain at first but happy as he could no longer distinguish between himself, his papa and his mamma. Deed done he yawned, settling himself against his mother’s breast for a long, well-earned nap.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon gets his first toy

Gideon was 50% paws, it felt like. Compared to the rest of his tiny body his paws were almost comically-proportioned, which meant he was likely going to be big once he grew up, though he had no idea who he’d gotten that from. It did make the poor wee babe clumsy and accident-prone, his paws seeking out anything they might amuse themselves with and trying their patience.

Belle, poor lass, ran herself ragged taking care of him, but neither had much experience raising a feline. In the end Rum stuck to what he remembered his old aunties doing for him, which was how Gideon was gifted his old golden ball of yarn.

It was love at first sight. For weeks on end Gideon did little more than eat, sleep, and bat that thing around. He slept cuddled up to it whenever he wasn’t lucky enough to nap on top of his mother’s soft-as-velvet coat of his dad’s warm fur. It warmed him right up, that the child had taken to his old toy with such gusto, as if his aunties themselves had given the lad a present of sorts.


End file.
